Gurdaspur jail escapees held in Ladowal

LUDHIANA: Three hardcore criminals who escaped from Central Jail, Gurdaspur, on Wednesday night were arrested following the joint efforts of Gurdaspur and Ludhiana district police in Ladowal here on Thursday afternoon. Cops have also arrested another associate of the accused, Ashwani Kumar, who was out on parole from jail and who helped them flee the jail. Deputy commissioner of police (DCP), Ludhiana, Gurpreet Singh Toor said that they have arrested Bikramjeet Singh alias Harpreet Singh alias Vicky, a resident of Bhagat Ke village of district Amritsar, besides three residents of district Gurdaspur -- Manga Masih, a resident of Manaikot village, Baljeet Singh alias Laddi, a resident of Ghuman Kalan and Ashwani Kumar. Toor informed that Bikram, Manga and Baljeet, escaped from Gurdaspur jail, while Ashwani who was also in the jail had gone out on parole a few days ago. He said, “Bikram had hatched this conspiracy along with the three others and had asked Ashwani to provide them with iron blades that could be used in cutting grills, when he would be out on parole, so that they could escape from the jail.” Toor said according to the plan, Ashwani came back till the boundary wall of the jail and threw in three iron blades, which were later picked up by the accused. DCP Toor said the three jail inmates then cut the grills of a bathroom’s ventilator and escaped from the jail at 2am on Wednesday. He said that he got the information about their escape from senior superintendent of police, Gurdaspur, Rajjit Singh, following which they laid a trap at the entrance of the city. Toor said during preliminary investigation, the accused told them that after escaping from the jail they met Ashwani and then they went to district Hoshiarpur bus stand from where they took a bus to towards Jalandhar bus terminus and from Jalandhar they were headed to Ludhiana from where they were to move to their next destination. The DCP said there are 14 cases against Bikramjeet, ten against Manga, four against Ashwani and one against Baljeet. He informed that most of the cases were of loot, theft and dacoity. SSP Rajjit said after the incident they made a few police teams, which went in various directions in the state. They had received information that the escapees might moved towards Malwa region, so they had cautioned the police there, he added.

The SSP said one of his teams that was in Jalandhar saw the criminals in a bus that was going towards Ludhiana, and his team informed him about it immediately. He added he conveyed this information to the Ludhiana commissionerate, who laid a trap for arresting them. The SSP said that they succeeded in arresting the accused in a joint operation of the both districts.